"Sea Knight" Jinbe

Sabaody Archipelago, Area 8.

The sea breeze, laden with a salty dampness, swept past the buildings lining the street.

This place was not much different from the previous areas. Pirates frequented it just as often, and traces of their brawls still remained all around. The faint scent of alcohol mingled with seawater lingered in the air.

However, due to the Marines' campaign against pirates several months ago, far fewer pirates could now be seen on the streets.

The once-noisy taverns and black markets had also reined themselves in considerably.

And now—

There was not a single civilian in sight on the street. Even the scattered wandering pirates had vanished. The entire road lay empty, with only the howling sea wind remaining.

Breaking that silence were several figures that looked neither fully human nor fully fish.

They varied greatly in shape. Some were covered in fine scales, some had streamlined tail fins, and some had arms transformed into thick tentacles.

On closer inspection, they were Fish-Men who lived in the deep sea year-round and rarely set foot on land.

And at this moment, the one fiercely fighting them was not the pirates who often captured them.

It was a young Marine wearing a coat of justice, the insignia embroidered on its shoulders clearly marking him as a Marine Commodore.

It was Beiyuan Heng.

Beiyuan Heng gripped his long sword with both hands, and the clanging of steel echoed throughout the street.

Sparks flew as blades crossed, vanishing the instant they landed on the stone pavement.

The Fish-Men surrounding him were clearly divided into two groups, their coordination exceptionally seamless. They were obviously veterans who had seen plenty of real combat.

One group kept Beiyuan Heng pinned down on land. Most wielded swords and blades tempered in seawater, each slash carrying the brutal strength unique to Fish-Men.

The most conspicuous among them had eight agile tentacles, each holding a short blade. He was Hatchan, the Fish-Man known for his Six-Sword Style.

His tentacles moved freely, and his six short blades danced so densely that they formed a fierce web of steel.

The other group lurked in a seawater alley nearby, their bodies half-hidden beneath the murky water. From time to time, they emerged to launch water vortices packed with immense force at Beiyuan Heng using Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu.

The vortices howled through the air. Wherever they struck, water burst outward and left the ground battered with pits and craters.

Speaking of which, Beiyuan Heng encountering this group of Fish-Men had been entirely accidental.

After that Marine victory banquet, aside from spending time each day practicing swordsmanship in areas firmly controlled by the Marines, constantly improving both his swordsmanship and his recognition within the Marines—

He often took the initiative to head into fringe areas not fully controlled by the Marines to eliminate pirates, all so that those pirates hiding in the shadows would never forget his name.

Today, as usual, he had left the Marine base under the pretext of patrolling outside and searching for traces of Fisher Tiger, leader of the Sun Pirates.

He had assumed it would be an ordinary patrol, yet by sheer coincidence, he ran into this group of secretive Fish-Men at a street corner in Area 8.

What was even more unfortunate was that, to improve the efficiency of gaining recognition, he had brought several young Marine soldiers with him.

Under normal circumstances, with no colleagues nearby, Beiyuan Heng would not have minded letting these Fish-Men of the Sun Pirates go.

After all, these Fish-Men had not provoked him, and he had no fondness for the Celestial Dragons either.

Letting the Fish-Men of the Sun Pirates go would have been no great matter.

But now, he was within the World Government's territory, with fellow Marines beside him. As a Marine Commodore, he had no room to retreat and could only act decisively.

He first quickly escorted the Marine soldiers beside him into an abandoned building by the street and told them to call for reinforcements.

Only then did he turn around and boldly meet the Fish-Men head-on.

Fortunately, he did not see the legendary leader of the Sun Pirates, Fisher Tiger, among them.

With Tiger's strength—enough to break into the Holy Land of Mary Geoise alone, wreak havoc, and leave unharmed—defeating Beiyuan Heng likely would not have taken much effort.

Though being defeated by a top-tier powerhouse like Tiger would not have been shameful, it would do nothing for his own rise in recognition or his progress in swordsmanship. That was something Beiyuan Heng could never accept.

Tightening his grip on his long sword, Beiyuan Heng's gaze flickered slightly as he fixed his eyes on Hatchan, the Six-Sword Style user before him.

The long sword in his hand was not a standard Marine weapon, but a treasure he had seized from Roger's Bar in the Sabaody Archipelago.

It was a genuine one of the Fifty Skillful Blades, named Demon Cutter.

Back at the bar, the old craftsman responsible for maintaining the blade had once told him of its origins. Its maker had been wildly ambitious, hoping that its sharpness and Toughness would allow it to replace the legendary cursed blades known throughout the world. Thus, he had named it Demon Cutter, meaning to seize the might of demon blades.

However, though the craftsman's skill had been exquisite, he had ultimately failed to reach the realm of forging Great Grade Blades. In the end, he could only create this ordinary Skillful Blade. Even so, its sharpness far surpassed that of normal swords.

The thoughts passed in an instant. The battlefield gave Beiyuan Heng no room for distraction—not because these Fish-Men were especially strong, but because he needed to know why they were here and whether someone stood behind them.

At this point, the battle in the street had already reached its fiercest stage.

Seeing that his attacks had failed to break through for so long, Hatchan's eyes flashed with impatience. He suddenly let out a roar, and his aura surged.

"Six-Sword Style Secret Technique: Six-Sword Dance!"

Before his words had even faded, Hatchan's body began spinning at high speed, six tentacles moving in unison with their six blades.

As the blades spun, they formed an impenetrable circular blade formation. Accompanied by a shrieking gale, it charged straight at Beiyuan Heng.

After their earlier probing exchanges, Hatchan had already understood clearly that in a one-on-one fight, he was no match for this young Marine Commodore.

Even with his companions constantly interfering from the side, Beiyuan Heng still kept him firmly suppressed.

He knew he had to end this quickly. If they delayed until the Marines arrived, their group of Fish-Men who had infiltrated the land would likely be captured on the spot. What awaited them then would be Marine imprisonment.

Watching Hatchan's attack rush toward him, Beiyuan Heng quietly shook his head, not the least bit flustered.

By his standards of swordsmanship, Hatchan had only barely crossed the threshold of swordsmanship proficiency.

Though the technique looked fierce, it lacked structure and was riddled with openings. As for strength, speed, and combat awareness, Hatchan was even further beneath him.

Beiyuan Heng tightened his grip on Demon Cutter, ready to defeat Hatchan swiftly and cleanly.

But at that moment, an enormous torrent suddenly struck from behind him at astonishing speed.

The torrent carried tremendous water pressure and spun at high speed, like a waterfall falling from the sky. With unstoppable momentum, it crashed down on Beiyuan Heng.

Before the water even truly reached him, the powerful pressure contained within it had already flattened the stone slabs beneath Beiyuan Heng's feet, and fine cracks spread across the ground.

"Fish-Man Jujutsu: Ocean Current: One-Handed Shoulder Throw!"

A heavy voice came from the direction of the sea, carrying the deep resonance unique to Fish-Men.

Beiyuan Heng's heart tightened. With no time to think and no chance to deal with the charging Hatchan, he flashed aside at the absolute limit of his speed, barely evading the fatal torrent.

The torrent struck where he had just stood and exploded instantly. The enormous impact shattered the ground, sending water spraying several yards into the air and splattering the surrounding walls with wet stains.

He quickly turned toward the sea, his brows knitting slightly.

The Fish-Men who had lurked in the seawater earlier had also used attacks that hurled ocean currents, but their power had been nowhere near this great. They could not even break through his defenses and served only as distractions.

Sure enough, when his gaze fell upon the sea, a new figure slowly emerged from the surface.

The man was exceptionally burly, standing over two meters tall with broad shoulders and a thick back. Deep-blue scales covered his body, two sharp fangs protruded from his lower jaw, and his eyes were calm yet powerful.

Beiyuan Heng's heart stirred, and he recognized the other man's identity at once.

He was "Sea Knight" Jinbe.

He was also the Sun Pirates' core combatant, second only to Fisher Tiger.